Business Sales

Managing the Sales Negotiation Process

By

Mike Schatzki

How many times have you heard:

"You've got to drop your price by 10% or we will have no choice but to go with your competition."

"You will have to make an exception to your policy if you want our business."

"I know that you have good quality and service, but so do your competitors.

What we need to focus on here is your pricing."

"I agree that those special services you keep bringing up would be nice, but we simply don't have the funds to purchase them. Could you include them at no additional cost?

Every time you hear a statements like these, you're in the middle of a difficult sales negotiation. How you handle that negotiation will determine whether or not you close the sale and how profitable that sale will be. In order to give you a real edge in your sales negotiations, I have listed below some key points taken from my Negotiation Dynamics® seminar.

Don't Believe Everything You See and Hear

Part of a good salesperson's skill is to learn to read people and situations very quickly. However, when it gets down to negotiating, you have to take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt. Buyers are good negotiators, and thus they are good actors. You may be the only person who has what she needs, but everything she does and says, from body language to the words she uses, will be designed to lead you to believe that unless she gets an extra 10% off, she's going with the competition. Be skeptical. Be suspicious. Test, probe, and see what happens.

Don't Offer Your Bottom Line Early in the Negotiation

How many times have you been asked to "give me your best price"? And have you ever given your best price only to discover that the buyer still wanted more? You have to play the game. It's expected. If you could drop your price by 10%, start out with 0%, or 2%, or 4%. Leave yourself room to negotiate some more. Who knows - you may get it for a 2% reduction. You might have to go...